Dr Mark Zirnsak, the director of the Justice and International Mission Unit (JIM) for the Uniting Church Synod of Victoria and Tasmania will be guest speaker at Clarence Uniting Church – Bellerive at our 9:30AM service on Sunday the 15th of February.Mr Anthony McMullen, Social Justice Officer for JIM will be preaching at Sandy Bay Uniting Church at 9:30AM on the same morning.
Following morning tea Dr Zirnsak will be convening an open conversation with all interested people seeking to gain an understanding on issues of justice in Tasmania and to g discuss the work of the Justice and International Mission Unit. This conversation will begin at 11:15AM and is open to all interested people. If you are unable to attend the service because of commitments with your own congregation you may like to come across after church to share in the conversation. Mr McMullen will be holding a similar conversation at Sandy Bay at 11AM and Scots-Memorial at 12:30PM for those who may be closer to that worship centre.
Dr Zirnsak was employed as the Synod Social Justice Development Officer in the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania in June 1999 and became Director of the Justice and International Mission Unit of the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania in early 2004.
Mark is the National Coordinator of the Australian Network to Ban Landmines, Treasurer of the National Committee on Human Rights Education, Chair of the Victorian Human Rights Education Committee, Chair of the Victorian InterChurch Gambling Taskforce and Chair of the Victorian Council of Churches Social Questions Committee. He is also on the National Steering Committee for the Micah Challenge, a global campaign in the Christian community to ensure that the Millennium Development Goals are achieved, which includes halving absolute global poverty by 2015.
From December 1997 to the end of 1999, Mark had been National Religious Network Contact and Victorian Religious Network Coordinator for Amnesty International Australia. In 2003 Mark was awarded the National Meritous Service Award by Amnesty International Australia.
On the previous Friday evening, the 13th of February, Mark and Anthony and Jill Ruzbacky (formerly Cooper) will be hosting a workshop on justice issues at Wesley Uniting Church from 5:30PM to 7:30PM.
